Hockey Night in Canada

Canadian NHL roundup: Habs' Max Domi suspended for rest of pre-season

Montreal Canadiens forward Max Domi has been suspended for the remainder of the NHL pre-season after punching Florida defenceman Aaron Ekblad during an exhibition game.

New Montreal forward penalized for punching Florida's Aaron Ekblad

The Canadian Press · September 21

Montreal's Max Domi is pulled away by an official after a brief fight with Florida's Aaron Ekblad on Wednesday. Domi was suspended for the rest of the pre-season for his part in the melee. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Montreal Canadiens forward Max Domi has been suspended for the remainder of the NHL pre-season after punching Florida defenceman Aaron Ekblad during an exhibition game.

The NHL's Department of Player Safety made the announcement Thursday following an afternoon hearing with Domi.

The punch came at the start of the third period of Wednesday's pre-season game. Domi began tugging on Ekblad's shirt, asking him to fight. With the Panthers star showing no interest to drop the gloves, Domi punched him in the face twice, but still Ekblad didn't respond.

Watch video of the fight:

Montreal winger sucker punches Panthers' Aaron Ekblad. 0:30

Domi then dropped his right glove and sucker punched him right on the nose, and the bloodied Ekblad dropped to the ice. Domi was given a minor, major and match penalty on the play.

Ekblad was taken off the ice and underwent the NHL's concussion protocol, which he passed.

Domi, who was making his first appearance as a Canadien after coming to Montreal in an off-season trade that sent Alex Galchenyuk to Arizona, met with the NHL's Department of Player Safety on Thursday.

Gallagher gets 2 points in Habs' win over Capitals

Brendan Gallagher had a goal and an assist as the Montreal Canadiens earned their first win in three tries in the pre-season, beating the Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals 5-2 on Thursday at the Videotron Centre.

The Habs bested a Caps line-up that featured captain Alexander Ovechkin in his pre-season debut, as well as playoff star Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Tomas Tatar, making his debut with the Canadiens after coming to Montreal in the trade with the Vegas Golden Knights for former captain Max Pacioretty, earned a point and first star.

Ovechkin and Connor Hobbs scored for the Capitals. Pheonix Copley stopped 20-of-24 shots before giving way to Vitek Vanecek, who made three saves in relief.

Oilers remain perfect in pre-season

Ty Rattie had two goals and three assists and Connor McDavid added a goal and three helpers as the Edmonton Oilers remained undefeated in pre-season play with a 7-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two goals and Jesse Puljujarvi and Milan Lucic also scored for the Oilers, who are 3-0.

Marko Dano, Adam Lowry and Andrew Copp replied for the Jets, who dropped to 1-1 in exhibition action.

Edmonton, which dressed the more veteran lineup, got on the board first with a power-play goal midway through the first when Puljujarvi split the defence and beat Jets goalie Eric Comrie with a backhand shot.

The Oilers made it 2-0 early in the second when McDavid stole a puck and fed it over to Nugent-Hopkins for the one-timer goal.

Winnipeg pulled even with a pair of goals one minute apart, the first coming five minutes into the middle frame as Dano beat Oilers goalie Cam Talbot with a long wrist shot for his second goal of the pre-season. Shortly afterwards, Lowry tipped a Copp pass in at the side of the net.

Canucks edge Kings in SO

Bo Horvat put up two goals in regulation and another in the shootout as his Vancouver Canucks beat the L.A. Kings 4-3 on Thursday in pre-season play.

Early in the frame, a battle in front of the Vancouver goal ended with L.A. winger Kempe poking the puck in past Markstrom, who was sprawled out between the pipes.

Pearson doubled the Kings lead midway through the period, collecting a crisp pass in the centre lane and firing it directly into Vancouver's net.

Etem notched L.A.'s third goal of the night, redirecting a hard shot by Alec Martinez in past Markstrom.

The Canucks got back within one five minutes into the final period, when Tyler Motte got a pass off to Horvat, who went 2-on-1 with Goldobin. Horvat stayed patient and snapped a hard wrist shot in past Budaj to make it 3-2.

With just over four minutes to go in the game, Vancouver's power play struck again.

The Canucks stayed patient, passing around the edges until Pettersson saw Horvat open down low and made his move. Horvat collected the pass and immediately fired it off to Baertschi in front of the net. The left winger sniped a quick shot past Budaj, tying the game.

Overtime saw a flurry of excitement, including a strong penalty kill by the Canucks, but no score.

The Canucks have four exhibition games left, all on the road. They'll start with a visit to the Calgary Flames on Saturday.

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